Daily we read or hear about runaway fraud, waste and abuse in our federal government. Musk and his buddy Trump repeatedly state that spending and the size of the government is too large. So … they have started firing employees and are exploring shutting down certain agencies.
Reminds me of the early 1980s with Ronald Reagan’s election and the fine work of U.S. Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin). Back in 1980 we had 2.9 million federal employees and an annual budget of $739 billion. When the Reagan/Bush era was over in 1992 we had 3.1 million employees and a budget of $1.4 trillion. A huge surge in the budget but only a slight increase in employees. In 1982 Reagan commissioned a study to determine how much waste there was, thanks to Senator Proxmire. He found an estimated $707 billion in today’s dollars. Between 1975 and 1988 Senator Proxmire issued 168 Golden Fleece awards for wasteful contracts or programs.
Musk has said he wants to cut $1 trillion from our annual budget. That budget in 2025 is $7 trillion. He has begun that process by firing around 275,000 employees (out of the 3 million we currently have – about the same as in 1980). He believes there is waste in the range of $600-700 billion annually (about the same as Ronald Reagan found in 1982). So, in about 45 years’ time our federal employment and “estimated” waste has remained basically unchanged. The only real change seems to be that Musk has been awarded $35 billion in U.S. federal subsidies for his businesses compared to zero for Reagan and Proxmire and all other Presidents until now.
Musk seems to be our biggest example of federal fraud, waste and abuse. He should be fired.
Pat Malone
Columbia Falls